Martin Puchner is a literary critic and philosopher who is the Byron and Anita Wien Chair of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He is the founding director of the Mellon School of Theater and Performance Research at Harvard University. His early work as a literary critic focused on

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, especially such genres as the

closet drama A closet drama is a play (theatre), play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader. The earliest use of the term recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1813. The literary historian Henry Augustin Beers, H ...

, the literary

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

, and modern drama. His philosophical work concerns the philosophical

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

and the intersections of

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. His recent work focuses on large-scale projects in literature, technology, and cultural history. He is the general editor of the ''Norton Anthology of World Literature'' and lectures on

world literature World literature is used to refer to the world's total national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European literature. ...

Education

He studied at Konstanz University, the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

, and the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

, before receiving his Ph.D. at

Career

Until 2009 he held the H. Gordon Garbedian Chair at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where he also served as co-chair of the Theater Ph.D. program. In 2017, he published ''The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization''. The book won advance praise from

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

. The book was widely reviewed and translated into twenty languages. On October 13, 2020, W. W. Norton & Company published his book, ''The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate''. The book provides a familial account of the Germanic

cant CANT may refer to: *CANT, a solo project from Grizzly Bear bass guitarist and producer, Chris Taylor. *Cantieri Aeronautici e Navali Triestini CANT (''Cantieri Aeronautici e Navali Triestini'', the Trieste Shipbuilding and Naval Aeronautics; also ...

called

Rotwelsch Rotwelsch (, " beggar's foreign (language)") or Gaunersprache ( " crook's language") also Khokhmer Loshn (from Yiddish "", "tongue of the wise") is a secret language, a cant or thieves' argot, spoken by groups (primarily marginalized groups) i ...

. It was long-listed for the

Wingate Prize The Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977. It is named after the host ''Jewish Quarterly'' and the prize's founder Harold Hyam Wingate. The award recognises Jewish and non-Jewish writers r ...

. Writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

Michael Rosen Michael Wayne Rosen (born 7 May 1946) is an English children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster, activist, and academic, who is a professor of children's literature in the Department of Educational Studies at Goldsmiths ...

called it "A book about history, language and culture wrapped up in a detective story... It feels as if the writer is peeling back the skin to reveal Germany. I found it fascinating." In 2022 he published ''Literature for a Changing Language'', based on the inaugural Lectures in European History at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. It calls for a new approach to storytelling in an era of climate change. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' described the book as "a stirring manifesto." In 2023, he published ''Culture: The Story of Us, from Cave Art to K-pop'', which provides a global introduction to the arts and humanities. It was shortlisted for

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

's 2024 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award.

Honors

In 2017, he won a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. He currently is a Cullman Fellow at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

Bibliography

*2002; 2011: ''Stage Fright: Modernism, Anti-theatricality and Drama''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. *2003: ''Against Theatre: Creative Destructions on the Modernist Stage''. Editor, with Alan Ackerman. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. *2003: ''Six Plays by Henrik Ibsen'', with an introduction and notes by Martin Puchner. New York: Barnes and Noble. *2005: ''Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto and Other Writings''. With an introduction and notes by Martin Puchner. New York: Barnes and Noble. *2006: ''Theaterfeinde: Die anti-theatralischen Dramatiker der Moderne''. Translated by Jan Kuveler. Freiburg: Rombach. *2006: ''Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifestos, and the Avant-Gardes''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Winner of the James Russell Lowell Award. *2007: ''Modern Drama: Critical Concepts''. New York: Routledge *2009: ''The Norton Anthology of Drama''. Co-editor. New York: Norton. *2010: ''The Drama of Ideas: Platonic Provocations in Theater and Philosophy''. New York: Oxford University Press. Winner of the 2012 Joe A. Callaway Prize for best book in drama or theater. *2012: "The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 3rd edition." General editor. New York: Norton. *2017: "The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization. New York: Random House, 2017. *2020: ''The Language of Thieves''. New York: Norton. *2022: ''Literature for a Changing Planet''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. *2022: ''Culture: A new world history''. UK: Efinito. Published in the US in 2023 as ''Culture: The Story of Us, from Cave Art to K-pop''. New York: Norton.

References

External links

Private homepage

Page at harvard.edu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puchner, Martin German literary critics Living people 20th-century German philosophers University of Bologna alumni Harvard University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century German philosophers University of Konstanz alumni Harvard Extension School faculty